Title

Author

Date of Award

7-1-1992

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

Abstract

This study examined the leadership behaviors of Native American presidents of accredited tribally chartered and controlled community colleges. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire-Form XII was used to obtain the self-perceptions of seven Native American presidents about their leadership behavior. In addition, the perceptions of three faculty members, three administrative staff members, and two board members concerning the leadership behaviors of their president at each of the seven colleges were obtained through the LBDQ-12. Each president also was requested to complete a questionnaire designed for this study to collect biographical data and data about their goals, challenges, and accomplishments.

The findings and conclusions were the following:

The presidents and the board members perceived the presidents to be high in the leadership behaviors of Tolerance of Freedom, Consideration, Initiation of Structure, and Persuasiveness. These groups perceived the presidents to be low in the leadership behaviors of Representation, Demand Reconciliation, Predictive Accuracy, and Integration.

The faculty and the administrative staff perceived the presidents to be high in Tolerance of Freedom, Persuasiveness, Initiation of Structure, and Superior Orientation. They perceived the presidents to be low in Integration, Predictive Accuracy, Demand Reconciliation, and Representation.

Tribal college governing boards tend to hire individuals similar to themselves as presidents.

A descriptive leadership profile of a tribal college president is that he is male, is between 39 and 42 years of age, has served in his position for nearly six years, was reared on the reservation, descended from a family involved in tribal leadership, holds a master's degree, and has parents with at least two years of high school education.

Tribal college presidents spend a majority of their time coping with a lack of financial resources. Therefore, the roles and the positions of the presidents are tenuous.

Tribal college presidents believe their institutions exist to serve the students and community in addition to preserving the tribal culture through the college curriculum. The instilling of tribal culture in the Native American colleges is essential but difficult.

Recommended Citation

Fowler, Verna M., "Leadership of American Indian Presidents of Accredited Tribally Chartered Community Colleges" (1992). Theses and Dissertations. 1201.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/1201